When Dinosaurs Roamed America
When Dinosaurs Roamed America (sometimes shortened to When Dinosaurs Roamed outside of the U.S.) is a two-hour television program produced in the style of a nature documentary. It was directed by Pierre de Lespinois and narrated by John Goodman and premiered on the Discovery Channel on July 15, 2001. Synopsis Late Triassic (220 million years ago) * Coelophysis * Rutiodon * Desmatosuchus * Icarosaurus * Tarversodont * Mammal (live-acted by eastern quoll) * Locust The program starts in the Late Triassic, near modern-day New York City in the Newark Supergroup. The narrator explains how the Permian extinction led to new forms of life, including the dinosaurs. The camera tracks a Coelophysis through the woods, preying mainly on small animals such as insects and Icarosaurus. It encounters other, larger non-dinosaurian archosaurs such as Rutiodon and Desmatosuchus. The quick Coelophysis is portrayed as being a very successful inhabitant of this world. Early Jurassic (200 million years ago) * Dilophosaurus * Coelophysis kayentakatae (identified as Syntarsus) * Anchisaurus The program moves on the Early Jurassic of Pennsylvania, following a pack of Syntarsus, close relatives of the Coelophysis, hunting in the woods. They come across an Anchisaurus, a primitive herbivorous dinosaur, which kills one of their pack members in a failed attack before retreating with the pack in pursuit. The Syntarsus are driven off by a Dilophosaurus, which then kills the Anchisaurus to feed its offspring and then fends off another Dilophosaurus to protect its kill. The Syntarsus later return and begin to feed on the carcass, when the second Dilophosaurus returns and again frightens them away before feeding on the carcass. The narrator explains that Syntarsus and Dilophosaurus will evolve into more gigantic carnivores, while Anchisaurus will evolve into the sauropods. Late Jurassic (150 million years ago) * Apatosaurus * Dryosaurus * Ceratosaurus * Stegosaurus * Camarasaurus * Allosaurus * Pterosaur (either Comodactylus or Rhamphorynchus) The show skips to the Late Jurassic in Utah. The region has been engulfed by a severe drought as the seasonal rains fail to arrive. A family of Dryosaurus, consisting of a mother and two offspring, are looking for water when they are stalked and attacked by a predatory Ceratosaurus. The smaller dinosaurs can only flee, but the Ceratosaurus is muck quicker and kills and devours one of the juveniles. The others escape into a grove of pine trees and run into a herd of sauropods called Camarasaurus. They follow the herd for protection. A male Stegosaurus is attacked by the Ceratosaurus, but drives him off with his spiked tail and begins to follow a female Stegosaurus by constantly displaying his plates. Soon, the rainy season arrives, and everything becomes green again. A herd of Apatosaurus arrives, followed by several Allosaurus. One individual tries to launch an attack on the herd, but the sauropods' size and strength drives him back. The Dryosaurus are once again attacked by the Ceratosaurus, but escape when their pursuer is suddenly killed and devoured by a larger Allosaurus. The female Stegosaurus decides that the persistent male is a healthy individual and allows him to mate with her. Having eaten their fill, the Apatosaurus herd moves on in search of fresh food, but one member falls from a broken leg and falls into a ditch. Its distressed cries draw the attention of a pack of Allosaurus, and they begin to eat the sauropod alive. Mid Cretaceous (90 million years ago) * Dromaeosaur (possibly Suskityrannus) * Nothronychus * Zuniceratops * Coelurosaur (unidentified) The program moved to a forest located in New Mexico during the Middle Cretaceous period. A pack of raptors feast on a Zuniceratops that they have killed. A lone male arrives to steal some meat, but the pack drives him off. The lone dromaeosaur then tries to attack a grazing Nothronychus, but is slashed by its long claws and knocked over, though it escapes unharmed. An old male Zuniceratops is battling for dominance with a younger male for access to the females and position of leader of the herd. The old male is wounded when his young competitor stabs him in the frill with his right horn. The sounds of the fight are picked up a pack of raptors and they watch the battle from the foliage. One of the dromaeosaurs attacks the injured male, fatally wounding him, but another Zuniceratops headbutts the dromaeosaur, sending it flying off of the struggling male. The dromaeosaurs retreat, but the old male will not last long. Weeks later, a thunderstorm blows in and lightning spooks the herd into running off, leaving the old male behind. As it sounds its distress call, the dromaeosaurs return joined by a fourth member and kill him. Meanwhile, lightning strikes and the dead vegetation quickly catches fire. The Zuniceratops and several other creatures flee to safety, with the Nothronychus close behind. But the raptors are too busy eating, and are soon surrounded and die in the fire. However, several other raptors manage to escape and make it to safety with several other creatures. Late Cretaceous (65 million years ago) * Tyrannosaurus * Triceratops * Edmontosaurus (identified as Anatotitan) * Quetzalcoatlus * Ornithomimus (unidentified; revealed on website) * Purgatorius (live-acted by opossums) * Turtle (live-acted) * Bird (live-acted) * Spider (live-acted) The narrator explains that Zuniceratops evolved into the famous Triceratops. In the Late Cretaceous in South Dakota, Triceratops and Anatotitan graze on a rolling grassland bordered by tropical jungle, while Ornithomimus peck at roots in the area. Flying pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus soar overhead, looking for carcasses to eat. A young Tyrannosaurus rex arrives on the scene, practicing its skills to hunt alone. The Triceratops form a defensive circle around the juveniles and wave their horns and frills at the predator, who turns its attention to a Quetzalcoatlus feeding on a dead dinosaur. The T.rex charges the pterosaur, but it gets away, and the young T.rex goes back into the trees. At night, the Tyrannosaurus reunites with its family, and the mother chastises two of her young when one of them hits her scarred leg while sparring. The next day, the mother teaches her young to hunt. They target a herd of Anatotitan grazing in a forest clearing. The herd senses the pack and flees, with the T.rex singling out one individual that is promptly killed by the mother. As the T.rex begin to feast. an asteroid, six miles across, hurtles towards the planet at 4500 miles an hour and crashes into the Gulf of Mexico. The impact gouges out a crater 120 miles wide and sends an incandescent plume of dust, glass and ash into the atmosphere which falls back to earth as fiery debris. The blast wave radiates outward from the impact in a circle and in minutes, everything for hundreds of miles is incinerated by the heat or blown apart by the blast wave. Dinosaurs in the region are vaporized in minutes. The Tyrannosaurus family are also killed along with all the other dinosaurs in South Dakota. Two months later, the sun finally reaches the surface as the heavy ash cloud clears away. The disaster is over, but ninety percent of all leaf-barring plants have been obliterated and seventy percent of the animals have died out. Most dinosaurs are extinct. Despite the depressing and traumatic event, life is described as resilient, as a turtle emerges from the water and a bird flies overhead, explained by the narrator as the only dinosaurs left. Out of the ashes and charred debris, several small mammals called Purgatorius emerge, and the narrator explains that small mammals such as these will eventually evolve into humans, and think back in awe to a time "when dinosaurs roamed America".Category:Documentaries Category:Dinosaurs Category:Nature documentaries